Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae
by LadyPalma
Summary: A family dinner cancelled at the last minute leaves Hook and Regina alone in her house and they soon finds out that it is not a bad night after all... That's how it all started, but how will it end? Hints to Swanfire and Rumbelle, POST SEASON 3.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! This is my first attempt of long-fiction for Once Upon a Time and it could not be Hooked Queen of course! I hope you like this first chapter... Thanks in advance for reading!:) **

**P.S. The title comes from Aenead by Virgil and it means "I recognize the signs of that old flame". I just thought it was a perfect sentence for these two... Hopefully in the next chapters I'll make you understand better:)**

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**Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae **

_Chapter 1._

The timer rang as a sign that the cake had finally finished its cooking time. Regina stood up and took the hot pad, opening then the oven: a cloud of heat reached her face, forcing her to close her eyes for a moment, but when she opened them again a pleased smile appeared on her lips verifying that she had created a real work of art. The inviting aspect and the strong smell of apples that had been given off all over the room, made imagine that this time the woman had get the better of herself and it was with evident satisfaction that she was looking at the cake which was now on the table.

"It has your smell…" a voice behind her back commented, making her slightly jump.

"Hook" she said turning her head to glance at him "I think I had told you to wait for me in the dining room" continued in a cautionary tone, breaking off with that simple sentence what seemed to be one of the captain's usual attempt of flirt.

"Okay, as you want, Your Majesty" he replied with a smirk, putting his hands – a hand and the hook, actually – as a sign of surrender.

The lady of the house shook her head with fake annoyance and then gave him her back to go towards the fridge and take the different drinks.

"Do you need a hand?"

Leaving it open, she turned back again hearing that question with two bottles in her hands, and looked up to his guest with a glance hat seemed to say "_Are you still here?_". She bit her tongue and stayed silent for a moment, then she gave him a smile which seemed to have, maybe unwillingly, a mischievous shade in it. It was one of the tacit rules of their sort of friendship: he made a provocation and she answered to it, it always happened like this, even before Neverland.

"You have only one" she pointed out ironically, closing finally the fridge with a movement of the arm.

"Yes, but it's all yours, love" he answered, taking some steps towards her and taking one of the bottles from her hand "Apple cider, it's your handwriting" he said then inquiring, looking at the elegant tag.

Regina simply nodded and, taken a tray, she disappeared without a word to the dining room where the big table was unusually completely set; it had happened only three other times in about thirty years and all the three times had been in the last six months. She sighed at that thought and let her eyes pass on every dish, they were nine as the commensals of that dinner… Snow and her Prince, Henry with his father Neal and her other mom Emma, even Rumple with his Belle and of course Hook: all under the same roof, her roof. She fixed some details and with a last look, she left again the room, going back to the kitchen, but the scene that welcomed her at her return made her wish to have never done it.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The tone of the question turned out to be even higher than she wanted and she found herself practically yelling. The pirate looked up to her with an amused expression and then went back to his apparently profane attempt of mixture of Regina's apple cider with the little flask of rum that he always took with him.

"It's not bad" he commented having a sip of that drink from the glass he had poured it in "Really, you would be surprised, love" he added moving it towards her with a gesture of the hand, inviting her to taste it too.

Regina moved her eyes from the glass to the face of the man a bit hesitant, then she extended her hand on the table and took the drink to her lips.

"Mmm… It sucks" was the predictable final verdict that followed the sound of the glass meeting the wood again, but the slight hesitation between the moment of the taste and the pronunciation of that two forced words didn't pass unnoticed.

"I thought you were better then this at lying" he teased her, with an open smile.

She shook her head and crossed her arms to the chest "I'm asking why you have come in advance" she said then with an exasperated sigh, but making a complicit smile too.

"It's not my fault if the others are late" he simply answered.

The woman nodded and looked up to the clock on the wall, releasing the umpteenth sigh: eight thirty-five, thirty-five minutes late. It was not unusual that someone had some set back, Neal and Emma more than the others, weren't exactly champions in punctuality but thirty-five minutes were _thirty-five minutes _and none of the guests, except for Hook, had shown up yet. While she started to feel a natural worry – for Henry obviously, since he was with them – the ringtone of her phone interrupted the stream of her thoughts.

"Hallo, David? Where are you?... What happened?... Oh, of course, I under stand… Let me know and _congratulations_!"

Killian watched in silence as different expressions were passing on the major's face while she was speaking in that little electronic box, which still remained for him a mistery: worry, disappointment, fake indifference and then a forced joy pronouncing that last word. And it was exactly that last word to suggest him what had happened.

"What did the prince say?" he asked when he saw her removing the phone from her ear.

Regina looked up to him and made a face that let finally reveal how much the news had displeased her "They won't come, Belle is about to give birth" she explained bluntly, falling tiredly on a chair, then she looked at him again to spy his reaction, that on the other hand didn't waited too long to be showed.

"Amazing" Hook murmured concentrating in that single word all the still not faded rancor for his eternal enemy "The crocodile is finally having his complete happy ending" continued articulating every word.

"It's the proof that after all even villains can have it" Regina added with a tone full of irony.

The captain shook his head and sat down too.

"It's in moment like this that I feel more than ever my desire for revenge" he confessed more to himself than to her, clinching unwarily his fist.

"Then let's take revenge finally" she whispered after some moments, but the unsuale sweet expression that had lighted up her eyes was quite a contrast to that apparently violent intent "Let's eat all the dinner I prepared for nine, jus the two of us… Included the apple cake" she added in fact smiling openly and glancing at her culinary masterpiece.

"It sounds like a good plan" the pirate answered pretending to be serious "And why don't we drink also all the apple rum?" added then winking at her and offering again his attempt.

Regina tilted slightly her head and pressed hr lips together, as if she was pondering the proposal, then she approached a bit to his face, letting their eyes meet.

"Do we have a deal, dearie?" she asked then in a accurate imitation of Rumpelstiltskin.

A surprisingly warm laugh was the answer to that joke and the woman remained to look at him gladly amazed by that sound. It was strange, but during all the time of their long acquaintance she had never heard him truly laugh, maybe because it had been centuries since he did. And it was not just a metaphoric expression.


	2. Chapter 2

**Here I am again! thank you so much for the reviews, it made me so happy that you liked the first chapter... Hope you like this one too! I'm so curious about tonight's episode (I'll watch it tomorrow)... Le's hope to see something with these two ;)**

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**Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae**

_Chapter 2._

Altea Gold didn't take long to be born and paradoxically among the first to know there were Right them two: the pirate and the queen. Maybe that "let me know" that she had said to Charming more to the occasion than for a real interest, had been taken too much seriously by the prince that after about a hour and a half didn't hesitate to call her again to let her know the happy news. Hook, comfortably seated on the sofa in her living room with a glass of the wonderful apple rum in the hand, remained in silence for a while and then slowly made an amused face finding out the name of the newborn: Altea's meaning was "the one that heals", ironic to be the daughter of the Dark One, so ironic that when he let her notice the etymology, she chuckled too.

And it was with that last laugh and that last toast in honor of the little Gold, that Regina left the room with the precise intent to put away the unused dishes and wash the few where the unexpected dinner for two had been served. But right when she was about to push the button of the dishwasher, a deafening noise reached her ears, immediately followed by a yell of terror.

"Hook?" she asked worried, looking out onto the living room.

It was enough to link the vision of the pure lost expression on the captain's face and the one of the television on very high volume to change anyway the worry in irresistible amusement.

"You get scared by a bit of technology, really?" she teased him with a smirk, looking at him from the door.

"Don't stand still, come and help me, love!" he shouted to dominate the noise, moving his look between her and the devilish object in front of the sofa "What Do I have to do?" asked then, beginning to push some buttons of the TV remote at random.

Different channels and functions alternated on the screen but the volume seemed to remain constantly on the highest level. It seemed that Hook hadn't got used yet to that world's things and that, as his agitation suggested, they potentially scared him more than magic.

"This is it" the woman finally said, deciding to intervene, taking the TV remote from his hand and showing him the right button.

While the sounds dimed, Hook's expression visibly relaxed and the usual arrogant face became to show up again.

"It's all over, relax" she reassured him, with a clearly mocking tone in a new provocation.

"Not a word" he interrupted her giving her a nasty look, looking back then to the television, getting captured this time not by the sound but by the image "Is that a ship?" asked hinting at the screen where a great number of people of different social levels were getting on board on a huge luxurious ship.

"Oh no" Regina murmured recognizing immediately the scene and looking up to the sky clearly annoyed.

"What?" the man asked curios of that reaction looking between the woman flash and bone near to him and the elegant redhead protagonist of the framing.

"It's the film Titanic… It's about a tragic love story and the background is a real happening: the sinking of a transatlantic in 1912" she explained with a bored tone that yet denied the evident interest proved by the amount of information she knew about the topic.

"I never heard about it…" Hook answered thoughtfully "So, why don't we watch this… film?" proposed then underling the word that sounded still partly unknown to his ears, even after the six months he had spent in Storybrooke.

"You can forget it, I have watched it already five times at least!" the woman refused shaking energetically the head.

"That only proves that you like it, love"

"Seroiusly, it lasts more that three hours"

"It's little time _more than three hours_ for who had lived _more than three centuries_, don't you think so, love?"

The confident smile on the captain's face, while he retorted to the new attempt that she had made to dissuade him from the idea of watching Titanic, let only intend how much any other one could only be a failure.

"Okay, that's fine, let's watch this film" she finally agreed "But only if you stop calling me love" added then staring seriously at him.

The captain feigned to think about it and then slowly nodded "Fine… _Love_"

Regina looked up to the sky to that predictable answer, but with a resigned sigh seated anyway next to him on the sofa.

"So… Who's the one that dies?" he asked her interrupting the short silence, broken only by the voices from the television.

"Excuse me?" she said turning slightly the head to him with a confused expression.

"Yes, you have talked about a _tragic_ love story… So, who's the one that dies in the end: the sexy redhead or the idiot?" he explained alluding with the second epithet to a young version of Leonardo di Caprio.

"If you want to know, you'll have to watch it…"

With that simple answer, accompanied by a spiteful smile, the two, sitting near (maybe too much) to each other, came back to dive in Jack and Rose's _tragic_ love story. Smiles, nasty looks, comments and questions alternated until the principal scene of the film; the attempt of runaway of the protagonists, the events of the other characters, the music of the orchestra and the vision of the impressive end of a so impressive ship: the special effects and the pathos that the intense event could create were the signs of a masterpiece of direction, that to Hook's eyes must have appeared even more fantastic. And yet it was Regina's expression that, despite the first oppositions, was showing now more emotion.

"Are tears what I see?" he asked in fact in her ear noticing her watery eyes, finally getting back at her mockery about his fear of the television.

"Yes, of boredom" she quickly answered, trying to appear indifferent, but continuing to stare at the screen.

"I say that she could have made some space to the idiot too… In two they could stand" commented again the guest, annoyed by Jack's death and especially situation in which it happened.

"He saved the woman he loved" Regina exclaimed glancing at him "And this way he became a hero" added while the scene was showing now how Rose with the whistle between her lips was trying to call the attention of the lifeboats.

"This is exactly our problems… Eroism doesn't coincide with intelligence…" he pointed out ironically.

"Yes, the idiots are heroes"

"No, I'd rather say that the heroes are idiots"

Regina chuckled at that corrdction and turned compoletely to him, but when she found Hook's face very close to her and his blue eyes fixed in her dark ones, she felt her smile slowly fading. Before she could do something or even stop a moment to realize what was happening, the captain placed his lips upon hers with a passion that took the woman by surprise, but not for too long since a few moments later she was already returning that famelic kiss. His only hand was soon in her hair, attiring her more closer while, continuing to kiss her, he made her stand down on the sofa, until he found himself completely on her.

When they separated for mere need of oxygen, they remained to stare at each other in silence for a while: they wanted and desired each other and there was no need to say it at loud since their eyes had already made love a lot of times. They had played with fire and they never realized that and now they were going to burn together. Regina closed her eyes, trying to escape her own desire hat she saw reflected in the captain's eyes and for a moment she thought that maybe it was time to stop it, but when she opened them again that moment was gone along with that thought and she found herself saying right the only thing her wisdom was trying to prevent her to say.

"_Stay here tonight_"


	3. Chapter 3

**Agnosco veteris vestigia flammae **

_Regina chuckled at that correction and turned completely to him, but when she found Hook's face very close to her and his blue eyes fixed in her dark ones, she felt her smile slowly fading. Before she could do something or even stop a moment to realize what was happening, the captain placed his lips upon hers with a passion that took the woman by surprise, but not for too long since a few moments later she was already returning that famelic kiss. His only hand was soon in her hair, attiring her more closer while, continuing to kiss her, he made her stand down on the sofa, until he found himself completely on her. _

_When they separated for mere need of oxygen, they remained to stare at each other in silence for a while: they wanted and desired each other and there was no need to say it at loud since their eyes had already made love a lot of times. They had played with fire and they never realized that and now they were going to burn together. Regina closed her eyes, trying to escape her own desire hat she saw reflected in the captain's eyes and for a moment she thought that maybe it was time to stop it, but when she opened them again that moment was gone along with that thought and she found herself saying right the only thing her wisdom was trying to prevent her to say._

_"Stay here tonight"_

**[End chapter 2]**

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_Chapter 3._

A satisfied smile was the only answer of the pirate to the tempting request that the lady of the house made to him. They began kissing again, while the mutual desire released a more and more intense passion: it was clear to both that the invite had been accepted, deprived of any possible shade of meaning. Button after button, the woman had opened his shirt and slowly, paying attention to the hook, she took it off completely, but didn't have the time to admire the sigh of his bare body in front of her that Hook made a counterattack: he had started to pass his good hand all over her body, at first from above the dress and then underneath it to look for more contact, while with the hook he lowered her shoulder straps, beginning to cover her bare skin from the shoulders to the neck of little kisses. Regina reclined instinctively her head and closed her eyes, while a sigh escaped her lips for the unexpected pleasure. The captain smiled against her skin and then separated from her to search for her eyes.

"We should move upstairs, you know love?" he asked looking at her straight in the eyes and halting every other movement.

She gave him back a slightly confused glance. "And how is that? I thought you were used to place less comfortable than a sofa" she provoked him with a trace of irony in the voice, alluding to the taverns of the Enchanted Forest, where he had surely collected hearts (a _metaphoric_ collection that was even bigger than her _real_ one), and to his ship.

"But you are a queen, love, and well… You should be treated as a queen" the man answered with a smile in a perfect mixture of sweetness and malice, bending his head to her face and stopping at few centimeters to her lips.

"Mmm, how gentleman you are" she murmured, hiding with a short laugh the surprise that the consideration caused her.

Finished that exchange of sentences, Regina put her palms on his shoulders, distancing him a bit and sitting near to him; she kissed him again and, taking advantage of that distraction, let her hand slip to his hook, removing it and hooking it to the belt of his pants.

"What are you doing?" Killian asked with a slight hint of annoyance in the voice, realizing only in that moment the trick.

She simply smiled and stood up, attracting him right by the hook, leading him, through the dining room, the corridor and the stairs, to her bedroom, in particular to the base of the big double bed.

"May I have my hook now?" he asked her putting his hand on hers, trying to steal the precious metal.

But she was faster and with a twitch, she walked away with the wanted object in her hands to put it then on the bedside table.

"Now it's safer" she simply commented, returning back toward him.

Hook curved his lips slightly in a smile and then grabbed one of hands, attracting her closer, falling both on the mattress. They looked at each other again and it took that look to understand that this time it would have been no interruption.

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_Oh my God_, that's what exactly Regina thought when she opened her eyes the morning after; a strong smell of rum and sea filled her nostrils and Hook's arm around her waist prevented her from moving. She sighed trying to keep calm and raised slowly the sheets: she had nothing on apart from a light petticoat, but he… well he was completely naked and apparently not so asleep, or at least _a part of him_ clearly wasn't.

"Oh my God!" she thought again trying to wiggle out of his grab, and this time she said it at loud.

It had been probably the sudden move and the noise of that exclamation to wake the pirate up who, removing mechanically the arm in answer to the woman's solicitation, looked at her slightly confused. Then, slowly all the memories of what had happened the night before came one by one in his mind, and the realization of what was happening in that moment made appear an amused smile on his lips.

"Good morning to you, love" he said in fact with his typical mischievous tone "You don't have to be scandalized if my friend _gets up_ before I do"

Regina sat and looked up to the sky at that comment. She wasn't scandalized at all, on the contrary annoyed and exasperated were her feelings at the moment and the expression on her face let no space to other interpretations.

"What is the problem?" he simply asked with an unusual soft tone now.

"What the hell did we do?" she asked instead shaking her head.

She knew exactly what happened of course, but what she wanted to know was the meaning that it had for him. On the other hand, she didn't know herself what that night meant for her : she had liked being with him, feel his closeness and being his, she really liked that, maybe too much… But was it really worth to feel something for a turncoat pirate? Was it really worth to spoil that sort of friendship that they had recently created?

"I don't know, Regina" Hook answered sincerely in a sigh after some moments.

The sound of her name between his lips shook her from the questions that were flying in her mind and she found herself nodding weakly, then she looked away from him and shifted the sheets, getting up.

"I'll have a shower" she announced giving him her back and heading barefoot to the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom.

"Do you need company?" he asked her, returning to the usual provocative tone.

The woman continued walking and not caring to answer nor turning back, she closed the door of the bathroom behind her; only then, thinking again to the last allusion made by the captain, she looked up to the sky and finally a smile crossed her lips too.

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Regina went out the shower and pinched in the bathrobe slightly shivering: twenty minutes with the only company of a jet of icy water was what she needed to clear her thoughts and now, in her way downstairs, she felt ready for a confront with the pirate. Right when she was about to climb down the last step, the sound of the doorbell made her detract from her intention, forcing her to change direction. She approached the door and gave a look to the spy-hole: it was Emma.

"Ehi, Regina" said the blonde, when the door was opened "Sorry if I bother you" added glancing at the _clothing _that the owner of the house was wearing at the moment.

"No, don't worry… Tell me, dear, what brings you here so early?" asked the other woman with a slight impatience in the voice.

Neverland had changer her relationships with people and among everyone, the sheriff had been the one she had created a real bond with… Well, except for Hook, but the events of the previous night removed him suddenly from the top list of the possible friendships. Yes, because that's what the two women were building slowly and that as exactly the reason why the Swan was now standing with a smile on her lips, saying sorry for the missing dinner and defining the details for Henry's stay with Regina during the weekend.

"So on Friday I will pick him up from school and…"

Regina's sentence was suddenly interrupted by a sort of laugh and some words hardly understable; but if it wasn't easy to recognize the words, it was much more easier to recognize the voice, most of all for a person as intuitive as Emma was.

"Is it… Is there Hook?"she asked in fact, raising a eyebrow confused and suspicious.

The brunette kept quiet for some moments, trying to remain impassible.

"It's not how it seems…" she eventually said, passing a hand in her hair, feeling strangely awkward.

However the appearance of the object of the conversation immediately contradicted that attempt; Emma widened her eyes staring visibly astonished at Hook, who had just entered her field of view with a small cup in his hand, a grin on the face and… surprisingly shirtless!

"Are you regretting what you didn't want, Swan?" he asked giving to her a mischievous look.

The other woman turned back, finally understanding the reason of the strange reaction of the blonde and glanced at the pirate, to look back again, even more awkward now, to Emma. And Emma didn't know if she was more astonished by the sight of Hook or by Regina's unusual behavior.

"Maybe it's better if I go…" she murmured still confused, moving back slowly with the eyes still fixed on the unexpected couple.

Regina waited for some moments and then closed the door slowly, leaning on it with her back and finding in front of her the expression clearly amused painted on the captain's face. She shook her head and snorted: probably all Storybrooke would have know what had happened, before she herself would have realized it. Fantastic, she thought with irony, and yet it was another the thought that seemed to trouble her in that moment.

"What had exactly happened between you two?" she simply asked, trying to hide the note of jealousy that colored her voice.

But Killian didn't loose that particular and, approaching her, simply smiled, offering her the still hot cup and ignoring the question.

"I've succeeded in activate that other device… I'm making progress with technology, don't you think?"

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**I'm really sorry for the late! I hope you liked this chapter and what I wanted to say is... I love Hooked queen, still love them as a couple so much... Even if maybe they won't have any chance on the show...;) **


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